2015 Fiat 500C Abarth Automatic

Look what followed us. The little fella is a flamboyant dresser, noisy, and, at $32,095 out the door, high-priced pound. Subtlety isn't among the Fiat 500C Abarth's merits. When we examined a manual transmission coupe variant a year ago, the Ford Fiesta ST as well as the newest Mini Cooper S hardtop sent to the showers it. Why is our drive being shadowed by it?

While we are staunch supporters of human- this Abarth cabrio's six-speed automatic transmission has a fascinating sharp contrast to mushy clutch and the floppy shifter of the five-speed stick shift in the Fiat 500C Abarth we examined in 2013. Fiat tunes the MultiAir four-cylinder otherwise for the program that is automatic: Compared using the variant that is manual, power is down 3 hp to 157 but torque hops by 13 pounds-feet to 183. The extra grunt, peaking 100- in the rev range, makes this engine manner boggy below 3000 rpm than we have experienced, in the 2013 Dodge Dart, for instance. Actually, the automatic Abarth pull the stickshift 500C, reaching 60 mph in 6.9 seconds versus the standard's 7.3 seconds.

RIGHT, ITALIANS ARE EXCELLENT DANCERS?
As using the stick shift variation, the auto-equipped 500C Abarth's chassis is reinforced with performance-tuned anti- oversize brakes and dampers, roll bars, and big wheels and tires. The electrically raised steering is fast and manages to produce little rivulets of tactility conducted through the meaty, leather-wrapped steering wheel. At speed, the 500C feels secure and as put as anything with only 90.6 inches between the front and back axles can. The small fella does, nevertheless, bound over growth strips, frost heaves, and bulges hang onto that double-half-decaf cappuccino.

A thick blanket of white material that was cold prevented us from doing our testing regimen that was complete using the 500C Abarth - skidpad testing or rate was not impossible. In the spot of tarmac we could scrape clean, brake testing had the 500C coming from 70 miles per hour in 170 feet into a halt --similar to the 167 feet of the 2013 Abarth cabrio.

Surprisingly, thinking about the minuscule the large tires and stiff suspension, as well as the apparent dearth of steel in the roof of Fiat, structural rigidity isn't that good.

But it is not a Toyota, and portion of the fun is paring back the onion a little with each succeeding drive; oh, there is that switch I used to be looking for last month! Even though the back seats are pooch perches the fronts manage to be both encouraging and comfortable. Though, that is less of a concern, without clutch pedal to cope with here. The Fiat 500's new, seven-inch color infotainment screen helps clean up a few of the dashboard clutter, but it unfortunately does not contain navigation. To get maps, you have to choose a tacked- using a small display that sits atop the dashboard.

SUGGESTIONS FOR TOPS
On the other hand, the simple opening the "convertible" top is just amazing. It is really one that works with astonishing precision, only a fairly substantial cloth sunroof.

The single drawback to opening the top is the everpresent exhaust sound--enriched by Abarth -organization- status that is demerit --which drones on just like a leaf-blowing lawn team in your neighbor's yard.

But the nearly unacceptable amount of excitement does not matter. Not only does the cabrio variation let more of the world that is surface in, in addition, it radiates more of the Abarth approach to the ionosphere.